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Low growth is now normal. Don’t deny it

The facts have changed, so should our policy. Stop printing money and put up interest rates

Andrew Sentance

July 19 2012, 1:01am, The Times

This week has provided some relief from doom and gloom for the UK economy. Unemployment has fallen again and inflation also came down more than expected, easing the squeeze on consumers, which was particularly acute last year.

These figures were not available to the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) when it took its decision to restart quantitative easing (QE) last month. But I was pleased to see from yesterday’s MPC minutes that Ben Broadbent, my successor on the committee, and Spencer Dale, the Bank’s chief economist, opposed this. If I was still on the committee, I would not only be on their side, I would also be arguing for a more fundamental rethink of UK monetary policy.